During the political conventions, we heard a lot of talk about reducing our addiction to oil, becoming more energy self-sufficient, and slowing global warming. T. Boone Pickens, a billionaire who made his fortune as a Texas oilman, has proposed an ambitious plan to enhance our national security by making the country more energy independent, help the country economically by reducing the wealth drain on the country (and create "green" jobs), and slow global warming by constraining the production of greenhouse gases.

The plan is to install enough wind turbines from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota to produce 20 percent of the electricity for the United States within 10 years. The power generated from this system would allow shifting the natural gas now used to produce 22 percent of our electricity away from electrical generation and put it to use as a transportation fuel and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The projected cost is $1 trillion, plus another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost, and a bargain compared to what we spend on foreign oil every year.

Our oil addiction threatens our economy, our environment and our national security. The addiction has worsened for decades and now it's reached a point of crisis. America uses a lot of oil - 21 million barrels per day, of the 85 million barrels of oil produced around the world.

This is a huge economic cost. The transfer of wealth with over $700 billion spent each year for foreign oil drains our economy and devalues our dollar overseas. Energy costs, driven by higher oil costs, stretch most families' budgets. Higher oil costs are driving inflation in this country which limits the Federal Reserve Board's flexibility in managing our money supply in a way that stimulates our economy without encouraging further inflation.

This is also a national security issue, as our increasing dependence on foreign oil from unstable foreign countries lures us into conflicts we should not be involved in.

Carbon emissions released from the burning of carbon-based fuels are causing global warming.

The plan is not all this country needs to do, but it is the one critical thing we CAN do now to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives, and buy time to develop even greater cost-effective technologies.

Wind power generation is the most cost effective of the additional renewable energy sources now. Wind power accounts for 48 billion kWh of electricity a year in the United States - enough to serve more than 4.5 million households. That is still only about 1 percent of current demand, but the potential of wind is much greater. For example, wind supplies over 20 percent of Denmark's electricity today. Britain, with a population one-fifth that of the U.S., has committed $175 billion U.S. to produce 15 percent of that country's energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Studies from around the world show that the Great Plains states are home to the greatest wind energy potential in the world - by far. The Department of Energy reports that 20 percent of America's electricity can come from wind.

No one source of energy will be the total solution. In fact, with growing population in the U.S. and the world, it will take a combination of ALL sources to meet the demand for energy, including potential sources in development, such as geothermal energy, ocean wave energy, tidal energy, etc. The Census Bureau report released in August says that the U.S. has nearly 305 million people today and is projected to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050. The world population is over 6.7 billion, and forecast to grow to 9 billion by 2040. The demand for energy of all types will surely grow, both in the U.S, and worldwide. And, with the long lead times of bringing some types of energy online, there is no time to waste.

The need for solutions to the energy crisis transcends party politics, and is one example of where we Americans need to put our country first. We Americans can achieve great things, when a concerted and united effort is made, such as in putting a man on the moon.

Achieving energy independence will take such a united effort, but it can and MUST be done.